Audiobook6 hours
Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain
Written by Fintan O'Toole
Narrated by Sam Devereaux
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
A fierce, mordantly funny and perceptive book, from the author of Ship of Fools, about the act of national self-harm known as Brexit.
In exploring the answers to the question: 'why did Britain vote leave?', Fintan O'Toole finds himself discovering how trivial journalistic lies became far from trivial national obsessions; how the pose of indifference to truth and historical fact has come to define the style of an entire political elite; how a country that once had colonies is redefining itself as an oppressed nation requiring liberation; the strange gastronomic and political significance of prawn-flavoured crisps, and their role in the rise of Boris Johnson; the dreams of revolutionary deregulation and privatisation that drive Arron Banks, Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg; and the silent rise of English nationalism, the force that dare not speak its name.
"There will not be much political writing in this or any other year that is carried off with such style" THE TIMES.
In exploring the answers to the question: 'why did Britain vote leave?', Fintan O'Toole finds himself discovering how trivial journalistic lies became far from trivial national obsessions; how the pose of indifference to truth and historical fact has come to define the style of an entire political elite; how a country that once had colonies is redefining itself as an oppressed nation requiring liberation; the strange gastronomic and political significance of prawn-flavoured crisps, and their role in the rise of Boris Johnson; the dreams of revolutionary deregulation and privatisation that drive Arron Banks, Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg; and the silent rise of English nationalism, the force that dare not speak its name.
"There will not be much political writing in this or any other year that is carried off with such style" THE TIMES.
Author
Fintan O'Toole
Fintan O'Toole is the author of Heroic Failure, Ship of Fools, A Traitor's Kiss, White Savage and other acclaimed books. He is a columnist for the Irish Times and the Milberg Professor of Irish Letters at Princeton University. He writes regularly for the Guardian, New York Review of Books, New York Times and other British and American journals.
More audiobooks from Fintan O'toole
We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Politics of Pain: Postwar England and the Rise of Nationalism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Reviews for Heroic Failure
Rating: 4.666666666666667 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
24 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent book and perfectly narrated !! I love it
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A phenomenal analysis about the unlikely mix of events that led to Brexit